Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

Harry and Ron decided that if Mikel didn't show up in a week, they would ask Professor McGonagall about him.

The two played several more rounds of Wizard's Chess to vent their excess energy before returning to their dormitory to rest.

In the dormitory, Neville had already changed into his pajamas and was lying in bed.

To their surprise, Neville was also holding a Potions textbook, which was exactly what they were going to study this semester.

Ron saw this and asked curiously, "Neville, are you teaching yourself?"

Neville snapped out of his daze, quickly hiding the book behind his back, and instinctively said:
"No, I was just flipping through them randomly..."

Harry said, "But we were watching you very intently just now."

Ron laughed and said, "Yes, Neville, Harry and I didn't go home during the winter break. Instead, we stayed at school to participate in an experiment and previewed all the course content for this semester. If you have any questions, you can come and ask us."

Neville's eyes lit up, but he hesitated for a moment before asking, "Really? Is it possible?"

He spoke hesitantly, drawing out the last syllable of his words, sounding very unsure of himself. "Wouldn't this be too much trouble for you guys?"

Ron and Harry didn't say anything, but Neville had already completed his self-denial.

"Never mind, I won't bother you anymore. I'll just take a look. I'm not very smart, and there are many things I need to read several times to remember them."

Ron and Harry exchanged a glance. They had no other thoughts than that Neville was too cowardly.

Ron encouraged him, "But I think you have a great talent for potions. Look at me, I used to be a bad student in class and Snape would often scold me."

But during today's test, he didn't say a single word about me. So many students were criticized mercilessly by him, but he didn't say anything about me.

"If it were me a few years ago, how could I have predicted that I would be treated like this today?"

Harry also felt that Neville had improved this semester.

During Potions class, he would secretly peek at the other students when he finished making the potion.

Neville wasn't finished yet, but he exuded calmness and meticulousness, with a serious expression and tightly pursed lips.

It seemed that nothing could stop him from continuing to refine the potion.

At that moment, he felt that Neville had an indescribable feeling.

Harry chimed in, "Let's learn from each other. You always partnered with Lin Xia in Potions class, so you know her potion-making style very well."

In this way, we can discuss it privately, collect the questions that everyone doesn't understand, and discuss them internally first. If we still can't reach a conclusion, you can ask Lin Xia in class.

The reason he didn't mention Hermione was because Hermione's intelligence was an arrogance ingrained in her very being.

Sometimes when you ask her simple, basic questions, she'll give you a look that says, "How can you not understand something so simple?" which makes the students who ask the questions feel awkward.

However, apart from Hermione, Lin Xia and Draco are both the kind of people who are willing to help others.

Harry felt that Draco was still a bit arrogant when facing unfamiliar young wizards.

But Lin Xia was different; she treated everyone the same.

She would patiently answer any questions a student asked her.

Lin Xia was just too busy, so the little wizard didn't dare to bother her much.

Neville was deeply moved by Harry and Ron's encouragement; his eyes reddened slightly, and his voice trembled as he said:
"Thank you, thank you... I... I don't know what to say, but thank you so much. I don't want to hold Gryffindor back; I want to improve my grades."

He didn't want to see his grandmother's disappointed eyes anymore. Every time the family received Hogwarts' report card, his grandmother would look at him with a very complicated expression.

He didn't understand what kind of feeling it was.

Whenever this happened, his grandmother would take him to St. Mungo to visit his mother.

Tonight is the first night of school at Hogwarts.

The students, who had just started school, were still a bit reserved, staying in their dormitories chatting and not daring to go out at night.

Moreover, during the daytime, all the professors conducted a very strict inspection of them, which frightened the students.

But the more dangerous the situation, the safer it is.

There were two people who were so unconventional that they insisted on going out at night on the first day of school.

They used to go out at night simply to explore the strange things happening in the school and see what interesting things might happen.

But this time, their nighttime visit had a clear objective: the laboratory Lin Xia had built on the second floor.

Luckily, they borrowed the Invisibility Cloak from Harry beforehand, otherwise they might not have been able to get out tonight.

The plump lady at night is like the strictest inspector.

In the past, you could get away with it as long as you said the correct password, but this time you have to show your face.

If it refuses to reveal itself, you have to talk to it for 10 minutes to make sure it's not going out at night to do something bad before it will open the door.

George and Fred had to stand in front of the picture frame and talk aimlessly for ten minutes.

They chatted about the weather, the scenery, the difficulty of homework, and then loudly praised the plump lady for looking beautiful today.

George had some doubts; if it weren't for the final compliments that delighted the plump lady, they might have waited there for another ten minutes or so.

They would only open the door for them after the fat lady had worn herself out.

Now, although the plump lady opened the door, she also sternly warned them:

"I've recorded your voiceprints. Although I don't know who you two mischievous devils are, if anything happens at Hogwarts tonight, I'll proactively tell the professor your voiceprints the next day!"

Although I can't find out who you are, the Hogwarts professors certainly will. Be careful, young wizards, don't go astray!

George and Fred quickly ran out, wearing invisibility cloaks.

Once they reached the corridor, Fred said, "Damn it, this is the first time the Fat Lady has been so strict. She usually turns a blind eye. Even last semester when the whole school was under lockdown, it was never this hard to sneak out."

George: "I've always felt that the school's picture frames are smarter than the students. They know a lot of things, roam around every corner, and uncover many secrets."

It's a pity these picture frames don't think much of us; otherwise, just exchanging secrets with them and leaking the information would have earned us a fortune of Galleons.

Fred: "No, my friend, please don't even think about it."

When I was in lower grades, I tried to communicate with the picture frame. I bought it many things, and even took out a precious magic stone.

It turned out that the picture frame was very clever; it was just keeping me hanging. After it tricked me out of my magic stone, it never appeared again.

"Damn it, I still don't know what that picture frame really looks like, because every time it appears in front of me, its appearance and the voice it speaks are different!"

“Oh, Fred, hearing about this makes George almost laugh.”

"Oh, George, laugh if you want, just don't attract the professor's attention. After all, you're my twin brother."

The two slipped out of Gryffindor's common room, feeling quite relaxed.

But after a short while, the smiles disappeared from their faces.

In the blink of an eye, a sound suddenly came from the corridor.

"Hmm, I heard laughter. Who's standing there?"

A sudden, deep voice rang out, startling George and Fred, who visibly trembled.

But they remembered they were wearing invisibility cloaks, so even the professor wouldn't notice. They quickly regained their composure, quietly moving forward while glancing around.

A moment later, that deep voice came out again.

"I think I sensed two unfamiliar presences. Someone is approaching me. Did they use an invisibility spell?"
"Oh, friends, release your invisibility spells. I haven't talked to anyone in so long; I want to see you."

As they got closer, Fred and George finally realized where the sound was coming from.

It was coming from inside a picture frame!
They clearly remembered that during the day, there were no picture frames on this wall.

And it wasn't just today; every day before that, the second-floor corridors at Hogwarts were without picture frames.

Why did it suddenly appear tonight?
This made George and Fred even more hesitant to make any rash moves, and even their breathing became much softer.

I just quietly watched the black shadow in the Dunhuang painting frame.

George and Fred devised their own set of gestures to communicate.

Initially, this set of gestures was used on the Quidditch field to facilitate communication between two people over long distances.

Because they don't need to speak, their opponents won't be able to guess their next move.

George made one gesture, and Fred immediately gave another.

George: [To stay or to leave?]

Fred: [Shall we take another look?]

George: [But I felt like it had discovered something, and it gave me a very dangerous feeling.]

Fred: [But we have to go through it to get to the lab.]

Suddenly, George's ears twitched.

At the same time, George seemed to sense something and suddenly looked towards the end of the corridor.

Without further hesitation, the two turned and left.

Shortly after the twins left, Professor McGonagall's voice came: "Confessor, have you found something?"

"The Confessor" is the name of a strange creature.

Over the years, Hogwarts has collected many strange artifacts, which are kept in the school's vault and have not been used.

Some of these rare artifacts are so ancient that they have been preserved since the founding of the four major schools.

Among them, each of the four giants possesses extraordinary abilities and has no side effects when used, making them divine artifacts among the wonders.

Unfortunately, these artifacts were gradually lost from Hogwarts as history unfolded.

There are very few old and rare artifacts left in the school's archives.

Although these magical artifacts are powerful, each use of them will cause the wizard to suffer some side effects and increase the risk of being infected by the evil god's whispers, so no one wants to use them unless absolutely necessary.

The "Confessor" artifact may seem like a listening artifact, but it is actually a listening artifact that also has the functions of location and tracking.

Its specialty is finding criminals and getting them to open up and confide in it about why they committed the crime.

The black figure in the picture frame looked with amusement toward the end of the corridor. "I ran into two interesting little guys, but unfortunately they didn't seem interested in this old man. They ran away as soon as they saw me."

McGonagall frowned. "Do these two have the aura of an evil god? Remember your mission: you must help us find the student with the aura of an evil god!"

The black figure in the picture frame said, "No, they're all normal. They're just wandering around so late, so I scared them and taught them a lesson."

This time they were lucky to escape because I'm such a nice guy. But next time they run into the "Thorns," she won't be so easygoing.

Professor McGonagall, you'd better remind your students not to wander around Hogwarts late at night.

McGonagall: "Thank you for the suggestion, let's hurry up and go find someone!"

The dark figure muttered, "Why the rush? The deeper the night, the more obvious some traces become."

What Lin Xia didn't know was...

That very night, the picture frame suddenly stopped outside the Hufflepuff common room and stared at the direction of the Hufflepuff dormitory for a long time.

So long that Professor McGonagall began to suspect something was wrong and was about to go into the Hufflepuff common room to investigate, the picture frame suddenly turned its head and looked away.

"I'm going to go check out the fourth floor; I feel like there's something interesting there."

McGonagall glanced longingly at Hufflepuff's common room before following the picture frame away.
-
Day 2, Gryffindor dormitory.

Ron got up sleepily, and while brushing his teeth, he opened the window to look at the daylight outside. Suddenly, he realized why he was up so early.
This current schedule is the same as the one I had during winter break, getting up early and staying up late every day to take tests, not the schedule I had when I was in school.

School doesn't start this early, so he can sleep for another half hour.

Just as he put down his toothbrush and went back to bed to lie down, he found that Harry's bed was empty.

Ron thought to himself, "Is Harry already up? So early! What's he going to do?"

He was stunned for a while before he realized that Quidditch matches were about to begin again with the start of the new semester.

Harry went out early in the morning, probably because the captain called him to training.

Seeing how "ambitious" Harry was, Ron stared at his bed and felt a little uneasy.

I lay in bed tossing and turning for a while, still feeling uneasy, so I got up.

Forget it, he should spend more time exercising.

Having a strong physique makes it easier to escape if you encounter danger in the future!

Ron got up quite loudly and accidentally disturbed Neville.

Neville rubbed his eyes, yawned, and sat up from the bed in a daze.

The sky-blue nightcap he was wearing had a fluffy little tuft at the end, which was stuck to his face.

Neville looks a bit silly and cute.

When Ron finished getting ready to leave, Neville finally realized what was happening and shouted, "Ron, where are you going?"

Ron turned around, somewhat surprised, and said, "Neville, you're awake. I'm going for a run, and then I'll read a book."

Neville hesitated for a moment before asking, "Can I come with you?"

Ron: "Of course, but you'd better hurry."

Neville: "Five minutes!"

Ron sat on his bed waiting for Neville, not really paying attention to his textbooks, and looked around the dormitory aimlessly.

He suddenly remembered something and went to the place where the magic rune array had been set up.

Lin Xia asked him to set it up in the dormitory, saying that if Banban entered the magic rune array, it would be possible to track Banban's whereabouts.

Ron knew that Scabbers liked to hide in a drawer.

He opened the drawer and suddenly paused, startled.

The drawer was a mess, mixed with dry, yellowed mouse fur and dark bloodstains! (End of Chapter)